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ATIONAL THANKSGIVING SERVICES 



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HELD ON 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1865, 



IN THE 



III of the house of representatives of the united states 

of america. 



DISCOURSE, 



BY REV. C. B. BOYNTON, D.D. 

CHAPLAIN OF THE HOUSE, 



AND 



3TORIC REFERENCES TO THANKSGIVING OCCASIONS 



IN 



FORMER ERAS OF OUR REPUBLIC, 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 

W. H. & 0. H. MORRISON. 

1865. 



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,41 

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SERMON. 



By the President of the United States of America : 

A PROCLAMATION. 

Whereas it has pleased Almighty God, during 
the year which is now coming to an end, to 
relieve our beloved country from the fearful 
scourge of civil war, and to permit us to secure 
the blessings of peace, unity and harmony, 
with a great enlargement of civil liberty ; 

And whereas our Heavenly Father has also, 
during the year, graciously averted from us the 
calamities of foreign war, pestilence and famine, 
while our granaries are full of the fruits of an 
abundant season ; 

And whereas righteousness exalteth a nation, 
while sin is a reproach to any people ; 

Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew 
Johnson, President of the United States, do 
hereby recommend to the people thereof that 
they do set apart and observe the first Thursday 
of December next as a day of national thanks- 
giving to the Creator of the universe for these 
great deliverances and blessings. 

And I do further recommend that on that 
occasion the whole people make confession of 
our national sins against His infinite goodness, 
and with one heart and one mind imp'ore the 
Divine guidance in the ways of national virtue 
and holiness. 

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my 
hand and caused the seal of the United States 
to be affixed. 

Done at the city of Washington this twenty- 
eighth day of October, in the year of our 
[seal.] Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-five, and of the Independence of the 
United States the ninetieth. 

ANDREW JOHNSON. 
By the President : 

William H. Seward, 

Secretary of Slate. 



In pursuance of the above proclamation, a very 
large assemblage convened in the Hall of the 
House of Representatives to commemorate the * 
day. The Speaker of the House, Secretary of 
the Interior, Members of Congress, officials of 
the Government, representatives of the military 
and naval departments, citizens of Washington 
and from the various States, were present. 

Rev. Charles B. Boynton, D. D., chaplain of 
the House and pastor of the First Congregational 
church of Washington, assisted by Rev. B. F. 
Morris, of Cincinnati, Ohio, conducted the ser- 
vices. 

The divine blessing was invoked, and the 
choir and congregation united in singing the 
lofty and impressive anthem — 

Before Jehovah's awful throne, 

Ye nations bow with sacred joy; 
Know that the Lord is God alone — 

He can create, and He destroy. 

His sov'reign power, without our aid, 
Made us of clay, and form'd us men ; 

And when like wand'ring sheep we stray'd, 
He brought us to His fold again. 

We'll crowd Thy gates with thankful songs, 
High as the heavens our voices raise ; 

And earth, with her ten thousand tongues, 
Shall fill Thy courts with sounding praise. 

Wide as the world ia Thy command ; 

Vast as eternity Thy love ; 
Firm as a rock Thy truth shall stand, 

When rolling years shall cease to move. 

Rev. Mr. Morris read appropriate selections 
from the Scriptures, of the Old and New Test- 
aments, from an imperial quarto pulpit Bible, 
presented to Congress in May, 1856, by the 
American Bible Society, a national institution, 
for use in public worship at the Capitol, which 
was acknowledged with thanks on behalf of 
Congress by the President of the Senate and the 
Speaker of the House, witn tne expressed hope 
" that the great truths contained in that sacred 



record may be impressed upon all our minds 
and hearts." The Scriptural lessons were as 
follows : 

" Then sang Moses and the children of Israel 
this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will 
sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed glo- 
riously ; the horse and his rider hath He thrown 
into the sea. The Lord is my strength and soDg, 
and He is become my salvation : He is my 
God, and I will prepare Him a habitation ; my 
father's God, and I will exalt Him." — Ex. xv, 
1. 2. 

"And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and 
proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto 
all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee 
unto you." — Le. xxv, 10. 

" And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt 
hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord 
thy God, to observe and do all His command- 
ments which I command thee this day : that the 
Lord thy God will set thee on high above all 
nations of the earth ; And all these blessings 
shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou 
shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy 
God. Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and 
blessed shalt thou be in the field. Blessed shall 
be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy 
ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase 
of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep. Blessed 
shall be thy basket and tby store. Blessed shalt 
thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt 
thou be when thou goest out. The Lord shall 
cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to 
be smitten before thy face : they shall come out 
against thee one way ; and flee before thee seven 
ways. The Lord shall command the blessing 
upon thee in thy store-houses, and in all that 
thou settest thine hand unto : and He shall bles3 
thee in the land which the Lord thy God giveth 
thee. The Lord shall establish thee an holy 
people unto Himself, as He hath sworn unto 
thee, if thou shalt keep the commandments of 
the Lord thy God, and walk in His ways. And 
all the people of the earth shall see that thou 
art called by the name of the Lord ; and they 
shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall 
make thee plenteous in goods in the fruit of thy 
body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the 
fruit of thy ground, in the land which the Lord 
sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord 
shall open unto thee His good treasure, the heaven 
to give the rain unto thy land in hid season, 
and to bless all the work of tkiie hand : and thou 
shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not 



borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head, 
and not the tail : and thou shalt be above only, 
and thou shalt not be beneath ; if that thou 
hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy 
God, which I command thee this day to observe 
and to do them ; And thou shalt not go aside from 
any of the words which I command thee this 
day, to the right hand or to the left, to go after 
other gods to serve them." — Deut. xxviii 1-14. 

" God is our refuge and strength, a very present 
help in trouble ; therefore will not we fear, though 
the earth be removed, and though the mountains 
be carried away into the midst of the sea ; though 
the waters thereof roar and be troubled ; 
though the mountains shake with the swelling 
thereof. Selah. There is a river, the streams 
whereof shall make glad the city of God, the Holy 
Place of the tabernacles of the Most High. God 
is in the midst of her ; she shall not be moved : 
God shall help her, and that right early. The 
heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved : He 
uttered His voice, the earth melted. The Lord 
of hosts is with us ; the God of Jacob is our 
refuge. Selah. Come, behold the works of the 
Lord, what desolations He hath made in the 
earth. He maketh wars to cease unto the end 
of the earth; He breaketh the bow and cutteth 
the spear in sunder ; He burneth the chariot in 
the fire. Be still, and know that I am God : I 
will be exalted among the heathen, I will be 
exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with 
us ; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah." 
— Psalms, xlvi. 

"Make us glad according to the days wherein 
Thou hast afflicted us, and the years wherein we 
have seen evil. Let Thy work appear unto Thy 
servants, and Thy glory unto their children. 
And let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon 
us : and establish Thou the work of our hands 
upon us ; yea, the work of our hands, establish 
Thou it." — Psalms, xc, 15-17. 

" Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for 
brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the 
precious ointment upon the head, that ran down 
upon the beard, even Aaron's beard ; that went 
down to the skirts of his garments; as the dew 
of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon 
the mountains of Zion : for there the Lord com- 
manded the blessing, even life forevermore." — 
Psalm, cxxxiii. 

" God that made the world and all things there- 
in, seeing that He is Lord of heaven and earth, 
dwclleth not in temples made with hands ; nei- 
ther is worshipped with men's hands, as though 



he needed anything, seeing he giveth to all life, 
and health, and all things ; and hath made of 
one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all 
the face of the earth, and ha'.h determined the 
times before appointed, and the bounds of their 
habitation." — Acts, xvn, 24-26. 

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding 
abundantly above all that we ask or think, ac- 
cording to the power that worketh in us, unto 
Him be glory in the Church, by Christ Jesus, 
throughoutall ages, world without end. Amen." 
— Eph., in, 20-21. 

Dr. Boynton addressed the throne of Grace, 
offering thanksgivings to God for all His mercies 
to us as a nation, especially for the blessing of 
peace and the preservation of our unity and na- 
tionality ; and implored the guidance of God 
to all in authority, His continued benedictions 
upon the people and nation, and His supporting 
care and comfort to the brave and disabled he- 
roes who aided to fight the battles and win the 
victories in the recent great conflict. 

The choir and congregation, at the close of 
the prayer, united in singing the hymn descrip- 
tive of the providence and power of God, in war 
and in peace, which closed with the following 
stanzas: 

Thou good and wise and righteous Lord, 
All move subservient to thy will ; 
< And peace and war await thy word, 

And thy sublime decrees tulfill. 

After which Dr. Boynton delivered the follow- 
ing 

discouese : 

j odus xv, 1, 2. — "Then sang Moses and the children of 
Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying: I will 
sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously ; the 
horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. 

"The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become 
my salvation." 

This is a part of a song of national thanks- 
giving, a hymn of praise which swelled over the 
sea and over the desert, on the morning after that 
night of wondei'3 and terror, when Israel was 
delivered and the power of Egypt was broken. 

In that awful gorge of the sea, the waves 
dashing to their side on either hand, the roar of 
the pursuing army behind, and that great cry, 
the funeral wail of Egypt, rising inland, a new 
nation was born. 

A herd of slaves had been changed into a 
people by that terrific midnight baptism, and 
were consecrated to the great work which was 
to end in the world's redemption. 

Far along the beach lay the long lines of the 



Egyptian dead, the horse and his rider, and yet 
Moses and his people, standing amid the corpses 
of that annihilated army, and knowing — for God 
had said it — that one lay dead also in every 
house in Egypt, thought only of triumph and 
thanksgiving, and the joy of the timbrel and 
dance. 

Nor was this because Moses had the hardened 
heart of a savage, unmoved by the slaughter 
which God had wrought, or the cry of Egypt's 
agony, but all sorrow over the dead was over- 
borne by a feeling still more noble — joy over a 
great act of public justice done ; joy that God 
had risen to crush tne oppressor, and vindicate 
the right ; joy that a nation was born ; joy that 
God had given peace to Israel, not by pardoning 
Egypt, but by her public execution, in order 
that the nations might be warned, and law and 
justice be honored. 

We, too, have come to a similar hour. We 
stand this day on the shore of deliverance, but 
we have passed through a sea redder, far, than 
that of Egypt — a sea of real blood and tears. 

Not for a few hours, but for four years, we 
have been marching through, splashed with the 
blood of our bravest and the tears of true- 
hearted and broken hearted thousands ; and to- 
day this American people, standing amid five 
hundred thousand graves, with millions of 
mourners and thousands of maimed and crip- 
pled men, the relics of the fight, rises above the 
greatness of its sorrow, and raises to God its 
thanks and its praises, that a great wrong has 
been trampled down ; that the right has been 
vindicated towards God and man, and that we 
stand before the world to-day a new born, free, 
American nation, over which floats the old flag, 
dearer now than ever, not one star eclipsed, and 
its glorious be.auty to be stained no more with 
the blood and tears of a slave. 

Sho.uld this day be observed according to the 
most appropriate recommendation of our Chief 
Magistrate, it will be one of the most illustrious 
days of our national life, a luminous point in 
American history. We have had national 
thanksgivings before, so generally observed that 
the voice of song and praise, rising in the 
morning by the shore of the Atlantic, followed 
the sunbeams across the continent with an un- 
broken melody, till the last hymns of the day 
floated out from the sea still westward from 
California and Oregon. 

Many times has God granted us great and 
peculiar mercies, saving us alike from our own 
folly and the power of our foes, but never be 



6 



fore has this nation, nor, as it seems to me, any 
other people, received at once so many right 
royal gifts as those which we acknowledge to- 
day. 

Successful on every line of effort, and all 
these tending towards one point, we have reached 
the grand result, we have received for all efforts 
the crowning mercy; God places to-day on the 
head of this new nation a coronal of blessings, 
sparkling with such gifts of love as are worthy 
of the power, the wealth, the liberality of Christ 
Jesus the Lord. When men wish to convey the 
highest possible conception of the value of a 
gift, they say it is an imperial present, but we 
rise far above this thought, and say, ours are 
Christ-like mercies. 

I propose to dwell separately upon some of 
the most important of these good gifts of God. 

The first point to which the President directs our 
attention, and to which all naturally turn, is 
thai God has granted us once more the blessings 
of peace. 

The manner in which peace returned is one 
of the marvels of history. 

A few weeks since the continent bristled with 
the arms of nearly a million and a half of sol- 
diers, shaking the solid land with the tramp of 
their march and the shock of their battle. Over 
the land and along the sea, lay the heavy battle- 
cloud, reddening with the artillery's flame, and 
fainter flash of musketry, while every dis- 
charge made gaps in the family circle and laid 
on living hearts a weight heavier than the clods 
on the grave. 

How quickly, as if some spell-word of more 
than human power had beCn spoken, this trage- 
dy of death was ended ! Over all the wide bat- 
tle-fields there was sudden silence, the armies 
mingled and exchanged friendly greetings, and 
in a few days all these weapons were standing 
harmless in aisenals or private homes, the 
thundering ships were moored and silent in 
peaceful harbors, and a million of men had 
mingled with and become a part of the general 
mass of society, as gently as so many water 
drops would have melted into the ocean. 

The value of this blessing of peace must be 
measured by the greatness of the previous bat- 
tle, the interest which it involved and the per- 
ils which it brought. If we can measure these 
we can also estimate this gift of peace, for which 
the thanks of a nation are being offered to-day 
Let us think, then, for a moment, upon the mag- 
nitude of this war. Such battle lines as we 



stretched across a continent, the world never saw 
before. They reached that double line of men 
and horses, and gleaming steel, and hostile ban- 
ners, and batteries, and forts, and deadly rifle- 
pits, from Gettysburg far beyond the Mississippi. 
Follow them from Pennsylvania through West- 
ern Virginia, through Kentucky to the Missis- 
sippi, and then westward to where Lyon fell, a 
thousand miles of battle ; trace it then up and 
down the Mississippi to New Orleans, up the 
Cumberland and Tennessee to the Virginia line ; 
trace it along the Potomac, along the coast, and 
on the sea three thousand miles, to Florida, to 
Texas, to the Rio Grande ; almost one line of 
flashing guns. Follow it down from Louisville 
to Chattanooga, Chicamauga, Mission Ridge ; 
trace it on to Atlanta, from Atlanta to Savannah, 
from Savannah eastward to North Carolina; 
then, lastly, begin at this city and follow along 
that highway of death and shame that McClel- 
lan marched over, and then trace the bloody 
track along where Grant proposed to fight it 
out, and did fight it out, and fight it down. 
Think how, on all these lines of battle, the 
land, the rivers, the ocean have been crim- 
soned with the blood of Americans. Think 
of the crowded grave-yards around every hos- 
pital; think of the sixty-four thousand mur- 
dered, starved, poisoned in those Southern 
prisons ; think of those horrors at which the 
savage is amazed, by which human nature was 
disgraced, and by which devils confess them- 
selves out-done. Sixty-four thousand murdered ! 
Think of them, starved into idiocy, staring at 
you with their rayless eyes ; look at them, — 
an army of skeletons, and hark to the cry 
of blood, the cry for justice rising from their 
graves. What have we to answer ? We have 
hung one poor, miserable subordinate, whose 
death produced no more moral influence than 
the crushing of a fly would have done, while 
every leader and instigator of these horrors 
walks as yet unharmed, and sixty thousand 
graves of the brave, true-hearted are crying 
out against us in the ear of God. I do not thank 
God for this. 

Again, in order to value peace as we ought, 
we must consider the effect produced upon a 
great nation by suddenly arresting on all sides 
the usual pursuits of life, and directing all the 
energies of the Government, the capital, the 
mechanical skill, the producing and thinking 
power of the nation, to organize and carry on 
so great and so fierce a war. 

From every rank and every condition" of life 



we drew out our workers and thinkers, the 
strong in body, the clear-headed, brave-hearted 
men, and sent them by the hundred thousand 
to the camp and the battle. North and South, 
we probably drew out two millions such, and 
whatever power these millions represented was 
withdrawn from the industry of the country. 

Nor was this by any means all. Thousands 
of our most skilful workers, all over the coun- 
try, were obliged to abandon their usual pur- 
suits ; and in order to meet the demands of 
war, the capital and machinery and the skilled 
labor that had been producing the wealth of 
the nation, were turned to the manufacture of 
muskets and cannon and war ships, and all the 
terrible enginery of battle, tod probably five 
thousand millions of the wealth of the land was 
consumed in the fiery strife. 

This will enable us to estimate more truly 
than we otherwise could, the blessings of the 
power which restores the capital of the land to 
its proper uses, and brings back our mechanics 
and our multitudinous machinery to the pro- 
ductions of peace ; which brings from the 
camps and battle-fields a million of men to add 
their energies to our productive industry ; which 
calls home our merchant steamers from the 
fight and the blockade, and re-converts them 
into the agents of a peaceful commerce. 

With the return of peace, time, the healer 
and restorer, is softening away the horrors of 
the fight. The blood-stains have vanished from 
the field and from the slippery deck ; the skele- 
tons have mouldered away or been buried out 
of sight ; the bare and harsh repulsiveness of 
our heroes' graves is smoothed away, and earth 
is busy, with gentle care, in filling up and heal- 
ing the gashes which the trenches and rifle-pits 
made in her bosom ; and over the mounds of 
the fortifications, and over the graves, she is 
weaving the covering grasses and decking them 
with flowers. The mourners are wiping their 
tears away, and time and distance have veiled 
already somewhat the terribleness of the death 
scenes and of the first hours of bereavement, 
and the sorrow of the nation serves now only 
to chasten and ennoble. Thus we may measure 
the worth of this peace which God has given by 
the magnitude and slaughter of the preyious 
battle, and by the peril which it brought to 
every great interest of the land — a danger so 
great that England and France rejoiced as if 
the ruin of the Republic were already wrought ; 
and even in our own eyes the life of the nation 
was for a time hanging in doubt 



In view of this great deliverance, this saving 
alike from our own mistakes and follies, as well 
as from the wrath of traitors, this nation may 
well exclaim, " Bless the Lord, my soul, and 
all that is within me, bless His holy name." 

Again: We should thank God that the nation, 
instead of being weakened and corrupted, has 
come forth from the war stronger, nobler, more 
heroic than before. 

The war has left the South alike a material 
ruin and a moral wreck. The ghastly empti- 
ness, the black desolation of their land, filled 
only with scorched ruins, and graves, and dead 
men's bones, fitly represent the general state of 
the Southern mind and heart. 

The South entered into the war as if there were 
no God and no eternal principles of right or 
wrong, as if greatness had no connection with 
the right and true. She did not know that 
no great and noble thing ever was, or will be, 
or can be done, in defence of a f ;ul and evident 
wrong. She went into the battle to maintain 
iniquity, and she fought under the inspiration 
of passion instead of principle. Those South- 
ern leaders seemed to think that they could kin- 
dle every evil passion; that they could, as the 
Apostle says, set the soul on fire of hell, and 
yet the soul not be consumed. They thought 
they could scalp a Yankee and drink out of his 
skull, and make trinkets of his bones, and not 
become savages themselves ; they thought they 
could murder and torture and starve defenceless 
prisoners, and set about generally a devil's work 
and not become devils themselves. 

They have, through an inevitable moral law. 
reaped the fruit of their doings. Thpy have 
paid the penalty of one of the most fearful 
crimes of earth. They took religion and pub- 
lic faith and honor, and all the forces of society, 
and all the energies of the individual, and 
pressed them by force into the service of a foul 
iniquity, and, as God could not be safely defied, 
nor the soul He has made be outraged with im- 
punity, the Southern character has collapsed, 
and there remains only the ruins of humanity, 
souls burned up with passion — the ashes and 
cinders of the extinct volcano. 

For the present, the South must remain incapa- 
ble of an heroic action or a great idea. [The states- 
man may reconstruct the forms of the State, 
but to reconstruct a ruined soul is beyond hiB 
art. The South has committed suicide upon 
her moral nature, and she must abide the re- 
sult 



8 



So l'^ng as the South feels no repentance for 
her crime, and only regrets that she did not suc- 
ceed : so long as her chief thought is to glorify 
and place in office those who have been leaders 
in this bloody iniquity, she cannot be recovered, 
she will sink lower and lower. She may pro- 
duce cunning intriguers, wire-workiug politi- 
cians, or a fresh brood of conspirators, but with 
all this she will remain incapable of a noble 
thing ; she will have no recovering life-power, 
no true manhood, because she rejects the right 
and the true, and obstinately clings to evil ; and 
if she persists she will certainly perish and dis- 
appear, and that beautiful land will be recov- 
ered by the power of the Northern life. The 
only choice which God has left the South is, to re- 
pent or perish. The North, on the contrary, has 
been made purer, stronger, nobler by the war. 
We, too, were in imminent danger at the outset, 
of being ruined for the lack of moral principle. 
When our leaders were trying all possible meth- 
ods of conciliating traitors ; when they set the 
mere political Union above justice, above human 
rights, and even the Law of God, we stood on 
the verge of destruction, because we were sap- 
ping the moral power of the nation, and be- 
cause without an underlying moral principle 
and a sustaining moral force, no cause can be 
great or successful. We were sinking into the 
inaction and torpor which mark the decay of 
moral power and spiritual life, when God in 
mercy started the whole nation with the thunder 
of the cannon at Sumter. It seems to me that 
the magnificent outburst of holy wrath, that 
spiritual lightning flash of patriotic fire which 
followed the attack, was an inspiration from 
Heaven. The North seemed to awake as under 
the breath of the Almighty. The first thrill of 
that new life went through all true hearts, and 
starting with its first throb, the North awoke to a 
new existence. She became capable of a great 
wax and a great success. She put on strength 
from God. As the contest went on, three great 
ideas g/adually were revealed to the Northern 
mind : The idea of delivering American Chris- 
tianity from all complicity with our national 
3ins - r the idea of lifting four millions among us 
from brutehood to manhood ; and the idea of 
one great, free, American nation consecrated to 
God and humanity. 

The moment the North accepted these ideas as 
the elements of the fight, she was irresistible. 
She was armed with the might of God, and suc- 
cess was sure. Her armies fought not alone 
under the stripes and stars, but under the ban- 



ner of Christ. All that was best in human char- 
acter was quickened under this inspiration of 
the right ; time, money, life, all holy effort, all 
noble sacrifice, were at the service of the Gov- 
ernment, and while the miserable traitor wrig- 
gled up and struck at the patriot's heel, he 
bruised to death the head of the Southern dra- 
gon. 

It was a noble victory for Christ and humani- 
ty, and such a fight and such a victory have 
filled us with grander thoughts and nobler as- 
pirations, and we stand this day mighty among 
the mightiest, with more power of great con- 
ception, with more ability to dare and do, than 
any other nation of earth. Let us thank God 
that our war was fought for principle, for right- 
eousness and truth, for the rights of man and 
the glory of God. 

The nation should come to Christ our King with 
thank offerings to-day, because He brought us 
into strait places, and through failures and de- 
feat forced upon us the conviction that we must 
deliver the slaves or perish ourselves. 

It is thought by many that this is an obsolete 
subject, belonging to the past alone, having no 
connection with any living issue of the times. 

This is contrary to the philosophy of the Bi- 
ble. Moses, 8nd the prophets after him, took 
frequent occasion in public to go over the his- 
tory of the past, and to remind the people of 
their sins of former years, and the punishment 
inflicted, that they might be humble and fear 
the judgments of the Lord. This nation has 
been convicted of a great military necessity ? 
but we are not, as a whole, convinced of the 
sin of slavery. 

We were compelled to do an act which has 
made our age and country historic and illustri- 
ous. We took four millions whose names had 
been striken off from the roll of our race, and 
reinvested them with a legal humanity. They 
had been changed by the infernal sorcery of 
wicked law into things, into brutes. Helpless 
and tormented, they groaned in vain, till Abra- 
ham Lincoln, inspired of God for this great 
deed, and compelled by the perils of the hour, 
uttered that counter-spell of deliverance, by 
which this herd of human cattle were disen- 
chanted, and they arose and stood among us in 
the similitude of men. 

I say in the similitude of men because as yet 
we refuse them the rights and privileges, the 
position, the respect, and the Christ-like cher- 
ishing which are due to our common humanity 



We cannot rid ourselves of this question of 
slavery because to save ourselves from ruin, we 
granted a dead form of freedom to the blacks ; 
it will confront us, a living issue, fraught with 
the old perils, until we have granted to the ne- 
gro that measure of rights which shall satisfy 
the infinite justice of God. 

The negroes have toiled for us two hundred 
years, producing a large portion of our wealth, 
and have been refused all adequate compensa- 
tion ; they have proved faithful when all around 
were traitors ; they rendered all possible loving, 
brave, true-hearted service to our soldiers, and 
their loyal blood, freely shed, was a part of the 
price of our safety, and these claims are all 
filed against us in that High Court where He 
presides who is Judge over all the earth. In 
that court Christ is the negroes' Advocate, and 
God the Judge ; and that cause will never be 
dismissed until the debt is paid, even to the 
uttermost farthing. [Applause.] 

[The speaker, when the applause had sub- 
sided, remarked that however gratifying such 
tokens of approval were, they seemed to him 
somewhat inappropriate upon such an occasion, 
and that the audience would confer a favor upon 
him by refraining from any applause.] 

Unless God was wrong in reminding the Is- 
raelites of their past sins in order that his for- 
giving mercy might be seen, it would be well 
for us to consider a moment our great sin, that 
the grace of God in sparing us may increase 
our gratitude and love. 

There were four millions of God's creatures 
upon whom he bad set his own seal as evidence 
that they were men, and we refused to recognize 
the sign-manual of Jehovah, we denied their 
manhood and expunged them from the records 
of the race. 

We violated, in regard to them, every com- 
mandment of Christ, their King and our King, 
and we subverted for them every civil right and 
every social institution. Think of four millions 
of men and women to whom we refused all 
wages for severest toil ; four millions who had 
not one dollar of legal property, nor a proper 
family, nor a true home, nor a wife that the 
man could call his own, nor a lawful child, nor 
a husband that could be protected in his rights 
— a mere herd of human brutes in the eye of 
the law, without even a family name, known 
only as Pomp or Caesar, as dogs and cattle are. 

When we think that the eye of a just and a 
pure God looked over this shocking outrage 
upon humanity, that He saw the scourgings and 



the torturings, the blood and the tears, and 
that night and day the heart-broken wail of 
these millions smote on the ear of Jesus, is it 
surprising that a just God should demand our 
tears, and our blood, and our treasure ? Is it 
surprising that He should shake, in His wrath, 
political structures that sheltered such iniquity ; 
and has not God magnified the riches of His 
grace that we are not consumed, but stand to- 
day with thanksgivings for this peace ? 

We have given the slave the form of freedom. 
Will we give to that form a reality and a life? 
Will we treat the delivered slave as a man ? I 
thank God for every indication that the nation 
is preparing itself for this proof of its noble- 
ness ; and when we are ready to reinvest the 
black man with every right and privilege that 
belongs to a proper manhood, then — but also 
not till then — will God's controversy with this 
nation b 3 ended, and we shall have peace indeed. 
The future of the nation hinges on the one 
question, whether we will abolish, not only 
slavery, but every trace of serfdom, and declare 
all men equal in right and privilege before the 
law and God. 

We should be thankful to God because He baffled 
the plot tchich was formed against us in Europe. 

With the evidence now before us, no candid 
man can doubt that the conspiracy against our 
Republic excej led to Europe, and that the for- 
eign branch , the was more formidable than 
that on our own eoil. The plot was prepared 
with as much care in France and England as in 
the Southern States. The European part of it 
was ready quite as soon as their accomplices 
here. When the moment arrived, France and 
England, by proclamation, and according to 
previous agreement, lilted the traitors to the 
position of lawful belligerents. France started 
for Mexico to reinstate the Latin power on this 
continent, Spain undertook to recover her Amer- 
ican possessions, and England was on hand to 
aid in crippling a commercial and manufacturing 
rival, and gratify her jealousy of the United 
States, and get ready her Alabamas, and swift 
steamers to run the blockade. Nothing saved 
us at the outset from more active interference, 
but the perfect confidence of France and Eng- 
land that our ruin was sure through what had 
been done already. They watched and waited 
for our destruction in vain; but they thought it 
certain. They were ready to strike, but thought 
the blow not needed. 

God was preparing, unseen, such a change in 



10 






the aspect of the fight as no human sagacity 
could foresee. The proudest hour the traitors 
ever saw — the blackest night that ever fell upon 
our cause — was when the iron monster crushed 
up the Cumberland and Congress as if they 
were eggshells, and then passed unharmed to 
her harbor, ready to complete, in the morning, 
the ruin of our fleet. Through those sad night- 
watches God guarded and guided the course of a 
etrange avenger. The Lord's deliverer was 
punctual to the hour. In the morning this non- 
descript iron stripling went forth to attack the 
iron Goliath of the sea. It was one of those 
great occasions which close up eras and change 
the aspects of the world. When the five hours' 
fight was over, and the beaten giant retreated 
disabled, the naval supremacy of France and 
England was annihilated ; their vast wooden 
navies could no longer command the seas. The 
Times said the British navy consisted of but four 
ships — her iron-clads. The question of inter- 
vention was settled; for neither England nor 
France had then a ship that they would dare 
match against the little Monitor. 

In that little vessel was the germ of those 
formidable ships constructed since, which are 
an overmatch for anything which Europe can 
bring to our shores, and to these fresh creations 
of American genius, to the new and formidable 
character of our guns, to the navy, as a whole> 
we owe our freedom from inte» ^ition hitherto, 
and our security for the future'."' if, as the pro- 
phet declares, the Lord has taught man how to 
plow and sow and thresh his grain, may we not 
believe that the ideas out of which our national 
defences have sprung were an inspiration from 
Him, and designed to save us from our foes? 

I cannot but think that the Northern mind 
has worked during the war under the special 
direction of God, and in nothing more clearly 
than in the American navy, which presents to- 
day a barrier to Europe which all her fleets 
cannot penetrate. 
We may be thankful that the true spirit and aims of 

the South have been revealed before they had 

fully regained tlieir political power. 

At the beginning of the rebellion we were 
brought to the verge of ruin, because, in spite 
of every kind of the most positive evidence, we 
refused to believe that the Southern leaders 
were really traitors, bent on separation and war. 
And now we were about to put in imminent 
peril all for which we paid this fearful price of 
blood, and tears, and treasure, because men 
were determined to believe that the South was 



not only beaten, but convinced of, and penitent 
for, her wrong, and would now adopt the prin- 
ciples and institutions of the North. But God, 
who has saved us so often in spite of ourselves, 
has interposed once more. The hand of the 
Lord has drawn the veil aside, and no one now 
need mistake the spirit or the aims of the South. 

It is with sorrow and disappointment that we 
are forced to believe that, with so few excep- 
tions as not to affect the general result, the 
spirit of the South to-day is what it was during 
the war, but intensified by the mortification of 
defeat. And this bitter feeling is cherished not 
only toward the conquering North, but towards 
the almost defenceless blacks, who not only 
escaped from their grasp, butwhose loyal hearts 
and desperate fighting contributed so largely to 
their overthrow. Whoever has marked the fe- 
rocious passion with which the war on their 
part was conducted, will see that it would re- 
quire a greater miracle than was ever wrought 
on human thought and feeling to produce so 
suddenly any friendly feeling towards those 
whom they have hated and scorned so long, and 
by whom they were conquered at last. We re- 
gret that such is the spirit of the South, but 
we must deal with facts as they are. 

Again, no one need mistake the purposes of 
the South. They are willing to abolish the 
name and form of slavery if they can retain the 
control of the blacks through their local laws, 
because they gain some twelve members of Con- 
gress by this nominal freedom, while the degra- 
dation of the blacks will be as complete as be- 
fore. There is nowhere an indication of will- 
ingness to yield to the black race the rights and 
privileges of a proper manhood. If the great 
estates are restored to the rebel owners, the 
landed aristocracy will hold both black and 
white laborers in the condition of serfs, while 
they will gain largely in political power by 
granting the worthless forms of freedom to the 
slave. 

The original theory of State sovereignty is 
held as firmly as ever, nor is the main purpose 
of the rebellion abandoned. 

With the aid of their Northern allies, and the 
added twelve new members of their own, they 
expect to win on the political field what they 
lost by the appeal to arms. 

By this revealing of the Southern spirit we 
are brought face to face with some most solemn 
questions, and we should thank God that they 
are raised in time to enable us to decide them 
aright. 



11 



Can we afford, by the wholesale pardon of 
these plotters and leaders of sedition, by the 
restoration of their property and their political 
rights, to declare, virtually, that they have done 
nothing worthy of punishment, and thus admit 
their plea that they owed allegiance to their 
States, and of course secession was neither 
treason nor rebellion? 

There is no other ground whatever on which 
pardon, as the rule, can be justified. 

It is said that a great and victorious people 
can afford to be magnanimous, and forgive even 
treason. 

But no state, however powerful, can afford to 
bring public law into contempt, to set aside the 
penalty of crime, and abolish the distinction 
between right and wrong, and thus subvert the 
very foundation on which society rests. 

Much less can a state afford to reward an open 
iniquity, so that even rebellion shall command a 
premium. 

The mercy of God is infinite. His compassions 
fail not. Love is the sum and essence of his 
character. God is l6ve. Yet, in all the history 
of the universe, there is not an instance where 
mercy interfered with justice ; there is not a 
case of forgiveness unless in some manner the 
law was first vindicated. He could not forgive 
a single sinner until the law was honored by the 
the death of Christ. Christ sets forth in the most 
solemn manner the inviolability of law when he 
says, " Heaven and earth shall pass away sooner 
than one jot or tittle of the law shall fail." 

God could create a universe with a word, but 
should one stain of injustice fasten on His 
throne, by one act of forgiveness over-riding jus- 
tice, even Infinite Power and Infinite Wisdom 
could not repair the wrong. 

Suppose that God should pardon, in violation 
of law, the fallen angels, restore to them their 
former power and rank and privilege, and should 
then refuse to the loyal angels their proper re- 
ward and honor: it would annihilate the moral 
basis of His throne. 

Can we afford, then, or will we dare, to put 
pardons in the hands that yet drip with the 
blood of our slain; shall we give back to the 
unrepentant rebels property, power and honor, 
while we deny all proper right and privilege to 
those whose steadfast hearts were true in all 
our hours of darkness and strife, and who, by 
the terrible ordeal of battle, have proved, both 
their loyalty and their manhood, and have fairly 
purchased the rights of citizenship with the 
price of blood ? Dare we present ourselves be- 



fore either God or the nations after having com" 
mitted an outrage against God by rejecting the 
principles upon which He declares His universe 
shall be governed, in claiming that traitors may 
strike at the life of a nation, throw into confu- 
sion the whole order of society, endanger all 
the interests of thirty millions of people, 
slaughter in the battle and by every other horrid 
form of death nearly a million of men, till a 
wail like that of smitten Egypt went up from 
all the land, and yet no crime be committed that 
demands a punishment — that such acts, upon 
which God himself has set damnation's seal, 
are even worthy of reward ? 

Could we face the wrath of God or the scorn 
of the world if we prove in any degree false to 
the spirit and intent of the promises by which 
we secured the aid of the blacks and changed 
the aspect of the war ? We know full well that 
the proclamation of freedom and the urgent in- 
vitation to join our armies, by every rule of 
honorable dealing and fair interpretation, car- 
ried with them the promise and the obligation to 
bestow every right of citizenship. Now, after 
we have received the price, paid, as it was, 
in blood, shall we dare repudiate the promise 
recorded alike in the Book of God and in the 
memoi'y of man, and not only withhold the 
essential rights of freemen, but restore to the 
rebel master property and place and power, and 
then hand back the slave, whom we swore to 
deliver, to be the victim of that master's pas- 
sionate revenge? 

We cannot do this without corrupting the 
heart of the nation. We cannot do it without 
bringing upon us the scorn and execration of 
the world. We cannot do it without compelling 
God to avenge the outrage. 

It would be to perpetuate a wrong, blacker, 
fouler, more cowardly than slavery itself. It 
would prove us unworthy to be a nation. We 
should forfeit our right to be. 

We should thank God that he has put our free in- 
stitutions on trial before the world, and brought 
that trial to such a glorious issue. 
Must we not believe that it was with a great 
purpose in view, reaching far beyond ourselves, 
that He drew upon us the attention of the na- 
tions, so that they became deeply interested 
spectators of the manner in which the Great 
Republic could bear the terrible ordeal ? 

The joy which thrilled through the leading 
powers of Western Europe when they thought 
our destruction sure, shows the extent of our 
influence, and how important it was that the 



12 



question of our stability should be settled so 
that none could doubt. 

Therefore it was that God subjected us to the 
peril and strain of the most dangerous con- 
spiracy and the most formidable civil war the 
world had known. He increased our peril and 
our difficulties by permitting thousands of trai- 
tors in our very midst, who, by every possible 
method, were giving aid and comfort to the 
South, and He brought all this upon us when we 
were stripped and disarmed, with no army or 
navy, or money or credit. He called the nations 
to look at what they thought a dissolving Union, 
the broken fragments of a nation, and then He 
suddenly revealed the astonishing life-power of 
our free institutions. 

The Union was not sundered. It was an in- 
surrection confronted by the regular Govern- 
ment. Instead of dissolving into a mob we 
were compacted into a nation. A peaceful and 
peace-loving people were transformed into the 
foremost military power on earth. Instead 
of any distrust or desertion of the Government, 
there was a steady enthusiastic loyalty which 
over-awed the traitors at home, and astonished 
all our foes. 

We raised such an army as the world had not 
seen ; we created a navy equal to the foremost ; 
we furnished three thousand millions to carry 
on the war ; we fed, and clothed, and armed our 
soldiers and sailors in a manner hitherto un- 
known; we followed them with the teachings 
and consolations of religion ; we sent to camp 
and field the comforts and cherishing sympa- 
thies of home. Instead of national poverty and 
universal bankruptcy, the Government provided 
a national currency adequate to our wants, and 
with which the people are satisfied. We have 
kept every department of our industry moving 
prosperously on, and we fought the battle 
through, and fought down the rebellion, and 
showed to the nations our one national flag float- 
ing again over every foot of our territory. We 
showed them four millions of slaves transformed 
into freemen ; and as if all this was not enough, 
God permitted our loved and honored chief to 
be foully murdered, to show that a free republic 
could endure even that. We sorrowed as no 
nation ever grieved before ; but we turned calm- 
ly and trustingly to place the power in the 
hands of his worthy successor. The loyalty, 
the sympathies, the hopes, the prayers of the 
nation were centred upon him, and with no 
pause, or jar, or fear, we moved on as steadily 
aB before to accomplish our mission. 



It was the grandest vindication of free insti- 
tutions, the resistless might of free intelligence, 
the world has seen. God meant it to be that, 
and Europe is a hundred years nearer deliver- 
ance than when our war begun. 

We shottld thank God that a new nation has been 

born — a nation that embodies now the spirit of 

the Gospel. 

Before the war we had no definite and well- 
compacted political structure. Instead of one 
grand nationality, there was a loose aggrega- 
tion of States, scarcely united by the tie of an 
indefinite General Government. Instead of one 
mighty national life, there was only an associa- 
tion of weak State lives, jealous of, and con- 
tending with, each other. 

It is far otherwise now. We are a nation, with 
great national aspirations, hopes, and powers. 
We have been fused into an inseparable unity by 
the fierce heat of battle, and consecrated to our 
national work by the baptism of blood and tears. 
The guns at Sumter awoke in us a national 
spirit, we rallied to a national flag ; we exalted 
the national authority ; we created an army and 
navy not of the States, but of the nation ; we 
have now a national history, a national name 
and standing ; we are capable now of national 
art and a national literature, and henceforth we 
shall live a national life. 

Before the war the United States, as a politi- 
cal organization, had no definite religious char- 
acter or purpose. But now the power which 
moves us and through which we have conquered 
is a religious sentiment, and that has also as- 
sumed a definite form. I refer now to what 
seems to be the dominant, leading religious sen- 
timent of the land. It is a Christianity which 
recognizes the manhood of all men, which de- 
mands for all men equality of right before God 
and the law, and a fair field in which every one 
may work out for himself a social standing ac- 
cording to the faculty which is in him. 

This is now the central idea of the living ag- 
gressive American Christianity, and the nation 
stands committed to its propagation and defence. 
The term Protestantism does not correctly des- 
cribe this form of Christianity. It is more than 
Protestantism ; it is a step in advance. 

It embraces and holds fast all the great Pro- 
testant doctrines ; but it also does more than 
this. The power of the Reformation consisted 
in presenting anew some of the cardinal doc- 
trines of the ancient faith. American Christi- 
anity accepts all these, and then goes beyon 



\ 



13 



and embodies the principles of the Gospel in 
free popular institutions, and in the very spirit 
of Christ .proposes to ennoble the whole hu- 
manity. 

The American nation then occupies a position 
never held by any people before. It stands the 
representative and champion of a true Christian 
democracy in Church and State, and demands 
this continent, and nothing less, as the theatre 
of its life. It opens a new era in the progress 
of humanity. 

If these views a>e correct, then we may look 
for the future safety of our country in this new- 
born and intenser Christian life, embodied now 
in national institutions ; so that although there 
will be no State religion, no Church in alliance 
with civil government, there will be an Ameri- 
can Christianity, which will control our national 
policy as the spirit does the body. As the spirit 
is present in every member and fibre of the 
body, so let us hope that American Christianity 
will pervade the whole body of our institutions, 
and shape every act of our policy. In the pres- 
ence of such a Christianity, living, active and ap- 
plied as God's rule of action to all of life, private 
or public, individual or social, no great iniquity 
can flourish, no great wrong can perpetuate 
itself. Before the bar of public opinion thus 
formed, four millions could not long plead in 
vain for just and blood-bought rights; and on 
such a nation the baptism of God's blessing 
would descend as brightly as the sunbeams and 
gently as the dews. 

We stand before the world on the threshold 
of this new era the mightiest Christian nation 
of earth; not through our army and navy, pow- 
erful 1 as they are, but through the thinking 
power which is created by general education; by 
the might of freedom which expands humanity 
to its proper proportions; by the living energies 
of a free Gospel, through which the life-power 
is working; mighty through the stern teach- 
ings of war and the holier discipline of sorrow, 
with a national life strong enough to control a 
continent, and which will brook no fetter or 
dictation from a foreign power. I cannot but 
think that the very form of our North American 
continent is indicative of the design of God in 
our national mission. If we study its map, and 
follow its boundaries northward from the Isth- 
mus along either ocean to the polar snows ; if 
we observe its mountain chains, its rivers and 
akes, and its central valleys, and then the adja- 



cent islands, we see that unity is stamped on 
every feature. 

It seems to have been constructed, not to be 
occupied by several independent States, but to 
be the theatre of one undivided national power. 
Nothing now is more certain than that the cen- 
tral, dominant life of the continent will absorb 
all else. * 

Thus far, it has crushed whatever opposed it, 
and it will not be rolled back, nor even checked 
now by a throne brought over from Europe and 
placed across the line of its march. 

In its vigorous expansion it will carry its in- 
stitutions and its authority to the utmost bound 
of the continent. Is it not, then, our national 
mission to fill this continent with the churches 
and schools, the activity and intelligence, and 
blessings 'of a civilization which is a true ex- 
pression of the Gospel, and then, making no 
aggression, and permitting none from others, 
aid as we may in regeneaating Europe by the 
example of a nation which honors Christ, and 
also honors humanity because redeemed and 
elevated in Him — the example of a Christian 
Continental Republic ? 



After the discourse, which was received with 
marked approbation, Rev. Mr. Morris offered 
the closing prayer, in which thanks were ren- 
dered to God for the great deliverance which had 
been, through the wonderful Providence of God, 
wrought out for the nation, and supplications 
offered for the reconstruction of the States upen 
the basis of impartial justice and liberty, and 
for national fraternity and love among all sec- 
tions of the consolidated Union, 

The doxology — 

Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; 
Praise Him, all creatures here bi'low; 
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host ; 
Praise Father. Son, and Holy Ghost. — 

was then sung, and the benediction pronounced. 
At the conclusion of the services, Hon. James 
M. Ashley, Member of Congress from Ohio, who, 
as leader, had so successfully carried through 
the House of Representatives on the 3lst of Jan- 
uary, 1865, the Constitutional Amendment abol- 
ishing slavery forever in every part of the United 
States, (which amendment has been ratified al- 
ready by tweaty-seven States, and so becomes an 
organic law,) rose and moved that Dr. Boynton 
be requested to furnish a copy of his discourse 
for publication, which was unanimously earned. 



14 



Eight thousand copies of the discourse, and 
services of Thanksgiving Day in the Capitol, 
were subscribed for by members of Congress and 
others ; and one of the leading journals of Wash- 
ington city, and another in Cincinnati, published 
the sermon in full. 

This was the first Thanksgiving service ever 



held in the Halls of Congress, and its Christian 
and national character was in harmony with the 
precedents and practices of the Fathers of the 
Republic, and with the genius and precepts of 
the Christian religion on which the nation was 
founded, and by which it has grown to its pre- 
sent prosperity and greatness. 



REFERENCES TO NATIONAL THANKSGIVINGS. 



The first National Thanksgiving was appointed 
by the Continental Congress on Thursday, the 
18th of December, 1*7T7, that prayer and praise 
might be offered " that under the providence of 
Almighty God these United States may receive 
the greatest of all blessings — independence and 
peace, &c." — Journals of Congress, 17*77. 

The second was celebrated on Wednesday, the 
30th of December, 1778, to render thanks that 
it had pleased God "to support us in a just and 
necessary war for the defence of out rights and 
liberties, &c." — Journals of Congress, 1778. 

The third was celebrated on Thursday, the 
9th day of December, 1779, "for God's favor 
and protection to these United States, and to 
pray that he would establish their independence 
upon the basis of religion and virtue, &c.'' — 
Journals of Congress, 1779. 

The fourth was appointed on Thursday, the 
7th day of December, 1780, " that God would 
favor our joint councils and exertions for the 
establishment of speedy and permanent peace, 
and cause the blessings of Christianity to spread 
over the earth," &c. — Journals of Congress, 17S0. 

The fifth was observed on the 13th day of 
December, 1781, and prayer offered that 
God " would favor the exertions of the United 
States for the speedy establishment of a safe, 
honorable and lasting peace." — Journals of Con- 
gress, 1781. 

The sixth was celebrated on Thursday, the 
28th day of November, 1782, " for the many in- 
stances of Divine goodness to these States 
in the ( ourse of the important conflict in which 
they have been so long engaged ; and that 
all ranks may testify their gratitude to God for 
his goodness by a cheerful obedience to his laws, 
anfcthe practice of pure and undefined religion, 
which is the great foundation of public pros- 



etity and national happiness," &c. — Journals of 
Congress, 1782. 

The seventh was observed on the second 
Thursday of December, 1783; with grateful 
hearts " that God hath been pleased to conduct 
us in safety through all the vicissitudes of the 
war ; and that he hath given us unanimity and 
resolution to adhere to our just rights ; that in 
the course of the present year hostilities have 
ceased, and we are left in the undisputed pos- 
session of our liberty and independence," &c. — 
Journals of Congress, 1783. 

The eighth was celebrated on Tuesday, the 
19th day of October, 1787, for the exchange of 
the instruments of ratification of the definite 
treaty of peace between the United States of 
America and his Britannic Majesty, and the 
happy completion of the great work of inde- 
pendence, freedom and peace to the United 
States," &c. — Journals of Congress, 1787. 

The ninth was appointed after the adoption of 
the present Constitution, by President Wash- 
ington, at the request of Congress, to be ob- 
served on Thursday, the 26th day of November, 
1789, in solemn acts of prayer and praise " for 
the signal and great mercies of God, and the 
favorable interpositions of His providence, in 
the course and conclusion of the late war ; for 
the peaceable and national manner in which 
we have been enabled to establish constitutions 
of governments for our safety and happiness, 
and particularly the national one now lately 
instituted." — Journals of Congress, 1789. 

The tenth was appointed by President Wash- 
ington, without special authority from Congress, 
to be observed on Thursday, the 19th of Feb- 
ruai-y, 1795, " by sincere and hearty thanks to 
the great Ruler of the Universe for the mani- 
fold and signal mercies which distinguish our 



15 



lot as a nation; particularly for the possession of 
constitutions of government which unite and, by 
their union, establish liberty with order ; for the 
seasonable control which has been given to a spirit 
of disorder in the suppression of the late insurrec- 
tion," Sec. 

The eleventh was appointed on Thursday, the 3d 
of April, 1815, on account of the conclusion of 

k peace between the United States and Great Brit- 
ain. The joint resolution was passed on the 
same day on which the official notification of 
peace was received by Congress, and President 
Madison issued his proclamation on the 4th of 
March, 1815, in which he recommends "the 
people of the United States to observe the day 
with religious solemnity, and by devout ac- 
knowledgments to Almighty God for His great 
goodness, manifested in restoring to them the 
blessings of peace." — Journals of Congress, 
1815. 

The twelfth was appointed by President 
Lincoln, without special authority from Con- 
gress, to be observed on Thursday, the 6th of 
August, 1863, "that it had pleased Almighty 
God to hearken unto the supplications and 
prayers of an afflicted people, and to vouchsafe 
to the army and navy of the United States vic- 
tories on the land and on the sea, so signal and 

^ so effective as to furnish reasonable grounds 
for augmented confidence that the Union of these 
States will be maintained, their constitutions 
preserved, and their peace and prosperity per- 
manently restored," &c. 

President Lincoln, after the fall of Richmond 
and the surrender of the principal army of the 
rebellious States, said to his assembled country- 
men, met on the evening of the 11th of April, 
1865, before the Executive mansion, " a call 
for a national Thanksgiving is being prepared, 
and will be duly promulgated." His assassi- 
nation on the evening of the 14th of April, 
prevented the consummation of his purpose. 

Presfdent Johnson, without a special request 
from Congress, appointed the thirteenth national 
Thanksgiving, on Thursday, the 7th day of De- 
cember, 1865, and his proclamation is among 
the records of the services in the Capitol on 
that day. 

Days for fasting and prayer were appointed 
by Congress during the revolution, as follows, 
•viz: Thursday, July 26, 1*775, by resolution of 
June 12; Friday, May 17, 1776, by resolution 
of March 16; December 11, 1776, day to be 
fixed by the several States ; Wednesday, April 



22, 1778, by resolution of March 26; Wednes- 
day, April 22, 1780, by resolution of March 11 ; 
Thursday, May 3, 1781, by resolution of March 
20 ; Thursday, April 25, by resolution of March 
19. 

Under the elder Adams' Administration, with- 
out special authority from Congress, a fast 
day was appointed on May 9, 1798, by a proc- 
lamation dated March 28, 1798; and a second 
fast day, under the same administration, was 
appointed, without special authority from Con- 
gress, on Thursday, the 28ih of April, 1799, by 
proclamation, dated March 6, 1799. 

President John Tyler issued "a recommenda- 
tion, dated April 13, 1841, to the people of 
the United States," to observe Friday, May 14, 
1841, as a day of fasting and prayer, on ac- 
count of the death of William Henry Harrison,, 
the late President of the United States, who 
died March 7, 1841. 

President Taylor, without authority from 
Congress, issued a " recommendation" for a 
national fast, to be observed on the first Friday 
in August, 1849, on account of the providence 
of God, which had manifested itself in the 
visitation of a fearful pestilence," the Asiatic 
cholera. 

President Buchanan, without authority from 
Congress, issued his proclamation, December 
14, 1861, appointing Friday, 4th of January, 
1861, " to be kept as a solemn fast," in view of 
the present distracted and dangerous condition 
of the country. 

President Lincoln, by special request from 
Congress, appointed the last Thursday of Sep- 
tember, 1861, "as a day of humiliation, fasting 
and prayer for all the people of the nation," 
and said, " it is peculiarly fit for us to recog- 
n'ze the hand of God in the visitation of civil 
war, and in sorrowful remembrances of our own 
fau't9 and crimes as a uation, and as individuals 
to humble ours' Ives before Him, and to pray for 
His mercy," &c. 

President Lincoln, also, by special request of 
a concurrent resolution of Congress, passed 
July 2, 1864, appointed the first Thursday of 
August, 1864, to pray "that if consistent with 
God's will, the existing rebellion may be speedi- 
ly suppressed, and the supremacy of the Con- 
stitution and laws of the United States may be 
established throughout all the States; to im- 
plore Him a? the Supreme Ruler of the Uni- 
verse, not to destroy us as a people, nor suffer 
us to be destroyed by the workings or conDi- 



16 



vance of other nations, or by obstinate adhe- 
sion to our own counsels which may be in con- 
flict with His eternal purposes, and to implore 
Him to enlighten the mind of the nation to know 
and do His will," &c. 

President Andrew Johnson, who succeeded 
to the Presidency on the death of President 
Lincoln, appointed Thursday, the 25th day of 
May, 1865, as a day of humiliation and mourn- 
ing before Almighty God, in order that, the be- 
reavement m?»y be sanctified to the nation;" and 
"that all may be occupied at the same time in 
contemplation of the virtues of the late' Presi- 
dent, and in sorrow for his sudden and violent 
death." 

Colonial Thanksgivings and Fasts were fre- 
quently observed by the New England and other 
Colonies on important occasions, and most of the 



013 785 160 A m> = 

Slates iu iuc umuu vi«*.~ & — ^T_ quarter 
of a century have celebrated annually by offi- 
cial authority, the festival of Thanksgiving. 
They originated in the piety and faith of the 
Puritans, and, through them, have become State 
and national in their character, and belong pe- 
culiarly to American ideas and institutions. 
They were celebrated for the ingathering of the 
fruits of the earth, and for social and civil 
blessings conferred by the favoring providence 
of God. Their observance exerts a benificent 
influence on the culture of the best affections 
of the human heart, and on the three great or- 
ganic institutions of God — the Family, the 
Church and the State— and the official papers of 
their appointments constitute a rich and impor- 
tant part of the Christian and political annals 
of our national and State governments. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



013 785 160 A 



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